On 5th September a Facebook page entitled R.I.P. Morgan Freeman was created, and so was born an internet hoax that, ironically, refuses to die.

At the time the page pronounced its terrible (and wholly inaccurate) news with a shameless request for followers: “At about 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, our beloved actor Morgan Freeman passed away due to a artery rupture. Morgan was born on June 1, 1937. He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page.”

It worked. The page now has more than 67,000 “likes” and is the subject of countless news stories.

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Let’s be clear. The Hollywood star and voice over king has played God, made a bucket list and killed at the box office, but he is not dead.

Morgan Freeman is alive.

There are a few pieces of evidence to back this up.

One is the words of his representative: “Morgan is alive and well, and joins the long list of actors who have been victimized by this hoax,” the representative told E! Online (who also debunked the rumour that he is voicing an audio book of Fifty Shades of Grey).

Another is that the About field for the very Facebook page in question now reads “He's still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the internet.”

And then of course there is common sense. Morgan Freeman was pronounced dead a few times in 2010 via Twitter. He survived those incidents and survived this one. Yet this time around the rumours of Freeman’s death have persisted.

Like some mentally challenged cousin of the internet troll, there are internet ghouls who like to “kill” celebrities. One website that turns up on a search for Freeman still pronounces him dead, truly hedging its bets by placing his date of death in the future (the 18th September). They make these dark pronouncements for attention, safe in the knowledge that the internet loves to grieve together, even when there is nothing to grieve.

Mark Twain famously quipped that reports of his death were greatly exaggerated, yet the combined wits of Twain, Wilde and Churchill could not provide sufficient rejoinders to deflate the quantity of celebrity death rumours these ghouls create.

Jeff Goldblum, Justin Bieber and Bill Cosby are other, regular, victims. Cosby in particular has indicated in the past how hurtful he finds these stories.

Australian musician Gotye aka Wouter ''Wally'' De Backer took to Twitter earlier this year to announce ''I'm not dead'' after iReport, the user generated portion of CNN's website declared he had committed suicide.

On that occasion bandmate Tim Shiel took on the role of Twain, announcing (also on Twitter) that ''It saddens me to confirm the news of @gotye's passing - he suffered cardiac arrest while flying a unicorn over a double rainbow.''

There is a tendency for people to suggest that there is no harm done by these stories, yet there is. From family through friends to fans, even a moment of seeing these headlines before common sense kicks in is hurtful.

Since the Freeman Facebook farce began, serial online death pronouncement pest Global Associated News has also tried to kill off Adam Sandler in a snowboarding accident, however, as the 21st century equivalent of the boy who cried "dead", they have been - for the most part - ignored.

Sadly this Facebook page was not.

Long live Morgan Freeman. I just wish these reports would die off.

51 comments so far

Take a normal person and take away visual and auditory queues and make the consequences less immediate and even the best of us can get caught up in being less than kind. Now take a troulbed person - an idiot, a sociopath, a mentally unstable person - and put them in the same situation. It's no wonder these issues crop up.

That does not mean we need to lock down the Internet and remove it's usefulness for the vast majority. We already have laws against harrassment, intimidation, false reporting. Use these laws where appropriate.

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Sammy01

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September 17, 2012, 1:50PM

That's all well and good to say, but the more of this kind of rubbish that gets onto the internet, the less useful it becomes. I really think that we need to start investigating a sub-internet that has only registered users who are validated and verifiable as an actual person, and have the ability to 'kill' someone from this web (de-activate them and not allow them back) for misbehaving. This way, we can eliminate the trolls and idiots, returning it to those who have something constructive to contribute... and porn.

Commenter

Disappointed

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September 17, 2012, 3:31PM

* cues

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Bender

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September 17, 2012, 7:10PM

My sincerest condolences. One of the finest actors of his generation

RIP

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depuD

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Sydney

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September 17, 2012, 1:59PM

Yep, sad to hear of Morgan's passing. Great actor. The good news is that Elvis Presley is still alive. Read it on a reputable website today. Anybody seen Clint Eastwood lately?

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Stop the rot

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September 17, 2012, 4:15PM

This just in - Giles Hardie has passed away minutes after penning this article on Morgan Freeman being alive!

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Andy 82

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September 17, 2012, 2:07PM

Was this page started by Richard Wilkins, by any chance?

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Paulineh

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Sydney

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September 17, 2012, 2:08PM

Such premature obituaries cannot be very flattering. After all, people would rather be "gone but not forgotten" than "forgotten but not gone".

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Sharan

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September 17, 2012, 2:09PM

That's so weird! I don't have a facebook account, but it was only over the weekend that someone was telling me that Morgan Freeman had died, and I responded in shock and relayed that the main prisoner character from the Green Mile had just died aswell.

well, now I can see where this person got this information from, at least indirectly! It may have been a friend of a friend who has facebook!?!?! Stupid Facebook ;)

Commenter

Matt

Location

Tatura

Date and time

September 17, 2012, 2:11PM

OMG I just read (read made up) a news article that Giles Hardy author of this very article is dead...

Yo Dawg, I heard you like to tell people that other people aren't dead, so I told people you were dead in the comments section of your article telling people that people aren't dead...